Refrigerating unit



July 28, 1931. L. s. COPEMAN REFRIGERATING UNIT Filed Jung 16, 1926 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 &M W; E W 4 w\ x & L W w 9 M W Q a 6 .1 Q a f, m .fl 1 7 QM 7 1 J 47/ A x i 1 z 1 1 h I INVENTOR. ,ZZ JZ p a ATTORNEY;

Patented Jul 28, 1931 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE LLOYD o. comm, or rLmr, MICHIGAN, ASSIGNOR. 'ro comm; LABORATORIES oomrm, or FLINT, MICHIGAN, A CORPORATION or MICHIGAN REFRIGERATING UNIT Application filed June 16,

This invention relates to refrigerating apparatus, and has to do particularly wlth a complete refrigerating unit of the type designed for domestic use.

Hitherto in the domestic refrigeration art it had been customary to supply refrigerating units for use with standard refrigerating boxes or to supply the refrigerating unit complete with the refrigerator. Regardless 1 of whether the refrigerating units have been supplied separately or whether they have been designed as an integral part of the refrigerator it has been the practice to merely follow the general design of common ice refrigerators and to merely replace the cakes 'of ice with a suitable cooling or expansion unit.

These efforts in the domestic refri erating art have been more or less success 111 in the production of a refrigerating unit which i is capable of absorbing heat from the interior of the refrigerator and in turn causing vaporization of the gas or liquid in the cooling unit, but such attempts towards efiiciency in refrigerating apparatus have generally been directed primarily to designing and production of a cooling unit and secondly of the efficient combination of the coolin unit'with the refrigerator proper, with t e result that those skilled in the art have, apparently, taken it for granted that it has been necessary to com letely approriate one chamber of the refrigerator box or receiving'and holding the cooling unit. My invention contemplates. the embedding of the cooling unit, so to speak,.directly in the walls of what is known as the refrigeratin chamber of the refrigerator. More speci cally, l'have found that it is unnecessary to completely fill up the refrigerating chamber of the refrigerator box, and thus render it useless as-a storage chamber. Instead of itioning the brine tank or the tubes of a rected expansion or flooded type cooling unit within the refrigerating chamber, I preferably embed the coils or conduits for circulating the refrigerating medius in the walls of the refrigerating chamber itself. In embedding these coils or conduits, I prefstably. form the interior walls of the refrig- 1926. Serial No. 116,321.

erator box of an artificial stone and embed the refrigerating coils or conduits directly in such artificial stone when such interior walls are cast or formed.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a vertical section of a completedomestic refrigerator unit embodying the novel principles of my invention.

Fig. 2 is a section taken on the line 22 expansion coils or conduits may be positioned or embedded in the walls of the refrigerating chamber in a plurality of different ways, I preferably embed these coils or conduits directly in the walls which are formed of a stone composition material, such as oxy-chloride cement. This comprises a mixture of magnesium oxide, fine sand or ground flint, or both, to which is added suflicient magnesium chloride in solution at 26 Baum to make a composition of material that is plastic or will easily pour.

The refrigerator proper is preferably constructed of a shallow wood frame l which may be covered with Duco or a spray coat of oxy-chloride cement. of this shell is an insulating shell 2 which may be'formed of cork boards. The chambers of the refrigerator,- which may consti- Fitted on the inside tute therefrigerating chamber 3 and the 7 food chambers 4 and 5, may be defined by suitable partitions 6 of wood or reinforced cork board.

In forming the interior walls of this refrigeratin unit the coils or pipes 7 ma be 1 r fhod 3. In this refrigerating chamber 3 the coils 7 are preferably formed to extend back and forth adjacent the cork board walls 2 in a manner as illustrated in Fig. 3. Such coils or conduit 7 may be also bent as at 8 to form the rectangular contour of a container for receiving suitable ice trays. It will be understood that the expansion coils 7 may be positioned solely adjacent the walls of the refrigerating chamber without providing for a sharp freezing, or ice cube chamber, or chambers, but as shown in Fig. 1, I preferably position and form the coils so as to define one or more sharp freezing, or ice cube chambers in themp per -left hand corner of the'refrigerating chamber, or the corner farthest away from the ventilating apertures which may be designated 9 and 10.

In casting or forming by novel combined refrigerator cabinet and cooling unit to form a complete refrigerating unit, suitable cores may be inserted in the mould. formed by the refrigerator cabinet, or shell, to define the interior surface and thickness of the interior cast walls of such refrigerating unit. The coils 7 may be positioned against the insulating walls of the cabinet and also positioned to define the sharp freezing, or ice cube chambers, either before or after the insertion of the cores. The cores having been positioned in the proper openings in the cabinet, and the refrigerating coils positioned in the space between the cores and the insulated lining, or the refrigerator shell,

the plastic stone mix may be then intro-- duced into the space between the various cores and the refrigerator shell, or mould, to form the interior cast artificial stone walls of the food chambers 4 and 5, the refrigerating chamber 3 and ice cube, or sharp freezing chambers 11. This casting of the walls of the refrigerating and ice cube chambers completely embeds the refrigerating coils, or pipes, within the walls of such chambers.

The base of the refrigerator cabinet may be provided with a suitable chamber 12 for containing suitable refrigerating apparatu's including a condenser, compressor and suitable motive power. This refrigerating apparatus is diagrammatically illustrated as at 13 of Fig. 1, and the inlet and outlet refrigerating coils 7 which connect the compressor and condenser of such unit with the coils or loops embedded in the walls of the refrigerating chamber, may pass directly through the walls of the food chamber 5 and be cast embedded therein at the same time that the entire unit is cast.

Due to the fact that the refrigerating coils are cast directly in' the walls of the refrigerating chamber, I preferably utilize a refrigerating apparatus of the direct expansion type. It will be understood, however, that refrigerating apparatus embody ing the flooded type principle may also utilizedand the necessary headers embedd in the walls of the refrigeratingch'amber or in cooperation with the ice cube container-.1 "1- By embedding the expansion coils for the beneficial use of cooling. or expansion'units which have hitherto been made of a large number of coils. and which, although they have provided a large surface area for effecting an efficient heat transfer, have at the same time, taken up almost the entire space of the refrigerating chamber. The artificlal stone wall acts as a good conductor, and also as a good holdover, for maintaining the temperature in the refrigerating chamber. The positioning of the .coils in one corner of this refrigerating chamber to define small chambers for use as ice cube. chambers, or sharp freezing chambers, makes it possible to freeze cubes of ice,,or other articles, and at the same time. makes it possible to utilize approximately the entire refrigerating chamber as a storage chamber. The connecting conduits 9 and 10 may be of any size desired to effect an efficient c1rculation, but it will be obvious that they need not be of any greater size than the conduits now in use in standard refrigerating units, as the air in my novel refrigerating unit has free circulation between the refrigerating chamber over a relatively large cooling surface instead of being restricted bya brine tank -or expansion COIlS. It willfbe understood -th at the ice cube, or sharp freezing chambers may be cast as an integral part of the refrigerating chamber walls and may be located at any desired position within the refrigerating chamber. It is believed, however, that by casting such units at the upper left hand corner of, the refrigerating chamber, as shown in Flg. 1, that the utmost economy in heat transfer will be obtained whereby a freezing temperature may be maintained in such sharp freezing or ice cube chambers, a highervtem: perature maintained in the V refrigerating chamber for. the preservation of certam articles and a still higher temperature maintaihed in the food chambers. I

It will thus be obvious that I have provided an entirely new article 'of manufacbe obvious that I have provided a novel refrigerating unit the cooling unit of which forms an integral part of the main unit and which is not only efficient in effectin heat transfer, but which is also efficient 1n the conservation of storage space.

What I claim is: I

1. A refrigerating unit comprising in combination, a cabinet, a lining therefor defining a plurality of chambers including a refrigerating chamber and a food chamber,

and a mechanical cooling unit embedded in said lining of the refrigerating chamber.

2. A refrigerating unit comprising in combinationa cabinet divided into a plurality of chambers, a lastically applied lining for defining one of said chambers, a sharp freezing chamber formed integrally with said lining, and a mechanical cooling unit positioned in the walls formed by said lining.

3. A refrigerating unit comprising in combination, a cabinet divided into a plurality of chambers including a refrigerating chamber, a plastically applied lining for said refrigerating chamber, a sharp freezing chamber cast integrally therewith, and a cooling unit shaped for defining and cast in the walls of said sharp freezing unit.

4. A refrigerating unit comprising in combination, a cabinet, a lining therefor defining one or more chambers, a sharp freez-' ing chamber formed integral with the lining of one of said chamber or chambers, and expansion coils forming a cooling unit embedded in the lining of said chamber and of said sharp freezing unit.

5; A refrigeratlng unit comprisin in combination a casing, a refrigerating chamber formed with walls of moulded stone within said casing, a localized cooling unit of moulded stone and formed integrally with the walls of said refrigerating chamber, and means forming a unit in a refrigerating system for receiving and ex anding a volatile refrigerant positioned n heat conducting-relation with the walls of saidlocalized cooling unit.

6. A- refrigerating unit comprising in combinationa casing, a refri erating chamber formed of walls-of moul edstdne, a localized cooling unit also formed of walls of moulded stone and being formed integrally with the wallsof said refri erating chamber, and means positioned within a wall or walls of said localized cooling unit for receiving and expanding a volatile refrigerant.

7. A refrigerating unit comprisin in combination a casing, a refrigerating 0 am-- ber defined in part. by a wall or walls bf moulded stone, a localized cooling unit of moulded stone formed integrally with the wall or-walls of the refrigerating chamber,

and means for receiving and circulating a volatile refrigerant, positioned in heat conducting relation with the walls of said 10- calized cooling unit and with a ortion of the wall or walls of said rerigerating chamber.

8. A refrigerating unit comprising combination a cabinet, a stonework lining therefor defining at least one chamber, including a food chamber, and one ormore sharp freezin chambers integrally formed therewith, an expansion coilsimbedded in the walls of said sharp freezing chamber or chambers and serving as a cooling unit for said food chamber.

9. A refrigerating unit, comprising in combination a cabinet, a stonework lining therefor defining a food chamber, and a sharp freezing chamber integral with the lining at the top thereof, and expansion coils forming a cooling unit imbedded in the stonework lining at the top of the food chamber.

10. As a new article of manufacture, a refrigerating unit comprising in combination, a vertically elongated refrigerating and food chamber, a localized cooling unit positioned at the top of said chamber and formed integrally with the walls thereof, and means for receiving and circulating a volatile refrigerant positioned in heat conducting relation with the top part of the chamber and with the bottom part of the cooling unit whereby to localize the refrigerating effect.

.11. A refrigerating unit comprising in combination a casing, a refrigerating chamber, asharp freezing chamber having relatively thick molded walls, the sharp freezing chamber being formed in part by the wall of said refrigerating chamber, the walls of said refrigerating chamber and sharp freezing chamber being formed of a material -having relatively good holdover and conductive properties and being molded into ally, and means for. receiving and con ucting a volatile refrigerant positioned in direct heat exchange relation with the relatively thick walls of the sharp freezing chamber whereby such relatively thick walls will act as a hold over for the refrigerant 

